Ghosts
by MegKF
Summary: The most ultimate Children of Earth / Torchwood Fix-it ever. Ianto is surprised when after he died he wasn't in a dark place, but back at the hub. Was originally a one-shot but will now be 3 chapters.


_Torchwood is owned by BBC. No copyright infringement is intended. Fanfiction is, in my opinion, free advertisement. I encourage everyone to purchase these products. _

_A quick Children of Earth Fix-it, actually I suppose it's a complete Torchwood Fix-it. _

** Ghosts**

Ianto blinked and swayed slightly. He looked around him confused. He was standing just inside the entrance to the archives at the Hub. That didn't make any sense to him. He remembered dying quite clearly. Aliens, a virus, telling Jack how he felt, Jack promising to remember him, a kiss, then the black the dead had told them about. If the archives were his afterlife he wasn't going to be happy. He'd probably prefer the black than have to spent eternity cleaning up the archives. Maybe he was in Hell?

Ianto raised his hand to check on his suit only to realize he had in his hands a familiar device. The Ghost Machine as they called it. He looked at it surprised. The device was one he remembered well, it allowed people to see past events of emotional extremes, or when both pieces were together allowed them to see a future. He gently placed the item on the nearest free shelf before leaving the archives for the center of the Hub.

He stood for a moment as he took in the beautiful sight before him. Tosh was sitting at her computer working on something. He walked up to her, resisting the urge to hug her close, instead he asked her a question, "Tosh? Can you bring up the CCTV footage from when I went to the archives until I came back up?"

Tosh looked at Ianto surprised, he never made requests like this of her. "Sure." She quickly typed in a few commands and she and Ianto watched surprised as he entered the archives, the only place in the archives with cameras, and then just stopped right after closing the door, a very real arch of energy rushed from some place deeper in the archives and connected with the ghost machine and then Ianto just stood there. Just stood there for 2 hours, Tosh realized as she fast forwarded until the moment Ianto came out of it.

She looked up at Ianto, his face lax as he stared at the screen. "What happened Ianto? What did you see?"

"It wasn't that I saw anything. I lived it. Lived my life until I died."

"You what?" Jack asked from the entrance to the Hub. Tosh and Ianto had been so focused on what they were looking at that they hadn't noticed as Jack returned with Owen and Gwen from a weevil hunt.

"The ghost machine interacted with something in the archive and made Ianto live a possible life," Tosh explained.

"Until you died?" Jack said, focusing on what he'd overheard coming in.

The five members of Torchwood were soon clustered around Tosh's computer. Gwen placed a comforting hand on Ianto's shoulder. Ianto covered her hand with his own and sent her a thankful smile.

"Yes. Until I died about two years from now."

"Two years?"

"Torchwood employees have short lives. You know this better than most Jack."

Jack frowned as he realized this was the first time he'd heard Ianto call him by his first name.

"How'd you die, Teaboy?" Owen asked. Ianto was support staff, of them all he was the safest.

"Alien's released a virus in the building I was in, everyone there died."

"But you don't go on field missions!"

"I go on a lot now. You and Tosh both died 5 months before me. And I imagine if I hadn't died I'd be going on even more, what with Gwen being pregnant."

"Died?"

"Pregnant?" Gwen gasped out.

The others were now all staring at Ianto. Gwen's hand fell off Ianto's shoulder in shock.

"You are married now Gwen. These things do happen. You only found out a couple days before I died. Besides, everything could change from what I remember, I lived a possible future. Many things I remember may never happen, other things might happen differently, although some might be the same. Probably things that happened that are already set in motion will be similar. Like Susie's plan to come back to life. We can probably change that. Probably change several things. But just changing that can change a lot of other things. A lot of people died for her come back to life plan. Those people might further change things. It's the butterfly effect. It probably wouldn't be hard to prevent us from dying how I remember us dying though," Ianto reached out a hand of his own and placed it on Tosh's shoulder. He'd missed her so much when she'd died.

Jack bit back a stab of jealously at the sight. Ianto turned to smile at him and Jack froze at the honest emotion he saw in that smile. Ianto tightened his hold on her shoulder for a moment before releasing it, stepping closer to Jack, grabbed his shoulders and kissed him passionately. The other stared in surprise as Jack joined in in the kiss. Ianto smirked at him and whispered some things in his ear that had Jack almost gapping at him. Ianto stepped back and said to the group, "I suppose the first thing we should deal with is my ulterior motive for wanting to work here, she's in the basement."

**End **

REVIEWS INSPIRE ME

I'm writing like crazy right now to get some story ideas out of my head. I'm thinking too much. I'd wanted this to be a lot longer, but I have enough stories going right now. Hope you liked it!


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